Super PACs allow Wall Street to dominate presidential giving in 2015

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush saw his support from Wall Street nearly vanish over the last six months. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The securities and investment industry flexed serious financial muscle in the presidential money race last year. At $102 million contributed to all candidates, current and former, and the super PACs supporting them, it led all industries tracked by the Center for Responsive Politics, new data show.

Super PACs allowed the industry to gain an outsize share of the pie in 2015 as Wall Street gravitated to some candidates and utterly abandoned others. With billionaire investors giving right and left, total contributions from the industry to presidential super PACs rose to $93 million.

But while securities and investment interests hold the lead in terms of money to the types of groups that can receive unlimited contributions, they gave far less to the campaign committees under the direct control of the candidates — just $9.3 million.

Investors made up the top donor industry to six of the current candidates when their campaign committees and super PACs are combined; the exceptions were retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

That $84 million split reveals, again, a difference in the funding sources for campaigns and for super PACs. Lawyers and law firms, along with individuals who reported they were retired, beat out securities and investment as the largest overall sources of direct campaign contributions, at $16 million and $33 million respectively. Real estate followed Wall Street closely at $8.8 million.

For some candidates, like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the difference allows for a technically accurate but misleading characterization of the facts. In December, Clinton could say she receives more contributions from teachers than Wall Street types even as her super PACs scooped up $17.2 million from wealthy financiers. She can’t make that claim anymore, by the way: Her campaign has now received more money (barely) from individuals in the securities and investment industry than in education: $2.93 million to $2.88 million, respectively.

Despite huge contributions to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and one $11 million contribution to Sen. Ted Cruz from fund manager Robert Mercer in the first six months of 2015, securities and investment firms appear to have picked their favorite candidate on the Republican side: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

As OpenSecrets reported in November, a group of megadonor individuals in the industry often give together, and they didn’t disappoint Rubio after the largest donor, Paul Singer of Elliot Management, endorsed him.

Meanwhile, support for Jeb Bush from financiers nearly evaporated: Outside groups backing Bush’s candidacy received $30 million from financiers in the first six months of 2015; in the last six months, they received just $961,532. As Bloomberg reported, even Goldman Sachs, a company with particularly close ties to the George W. Bush administration, abandoned him in favor of Marco Rubio. (See sidebar on Goldman Sachs.)

Other industries appeared to establish footholds with candidates outside the so-called “establishment lane.” Individuals in the education industry gave to $554,776 to Sanders, while the health professionals industry showed support for Carson with $902,389 in donations.

Senior Researcher Doug Weber contributed to this post.

Correction, 2/4/2016: Due to a data error, the original version of this story contained figures that were too low in several instances for contributions from the securities & investment industry. The numbers have been corrected. We regret the error.

Will joined the Center in May 2015 as the money-in-politics reporter for OpenSecrets.org. Previously, he spent two years as an investigative reporter for Hearst Newspapers in the company's Washington, D.C. bureau, investigating members of Congress for the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News and other Hearst newspapers. He graduated in 2013 from the University of Alabama with a degree in international relations and was the editor-in-chief of The Crimson White, UA's student newspaper.

The gold in Goldman

Wall Street is habitually at or near the top of the pack of industries when it comes to political contributions. This cycle is no exception (see main story).

And within Wall Street, global investment banking giant Goldman Sachs perennially places high on the list of donors.

When it comes to presidential candidates and their supporting super PACs so far in the 2016 race, Goldman ranks 25th in giving within the securities and investment industry, having provided $977,000 in the first half of the election cycle -- most of that in the first six months of 2015. It comes in at No. 68 among all organizations giving to the presidential contest.

Who's the company's favorite candidate? It's not Ted Cruz. Despite his long and cozy relationship with the company, including his wife's high-ranking position there (she's currently on leave to help Cruz campaign), AND despite the Goldman loan that helped make his 2012 Senate campaign possible (and that he didn't disclose to the FEC), the firm has only given $58,550 to his campaign and web of super PACs combined.

That doesn't mean Goldman's money isn't important to Cruz, however; it was his 16th largest donor in 2015.

Jeb Bush scored the biggest haul from Goldman, with his campaign and Right to Rise super PAC bringing in $496,000 ($195,000 to the campaign and $301,000 to the super PAC). Again, though, the vast majority of that was given in the first half of 2015, when Bush's electoral prospects looked brighter.

But Hillary Clinton comes in at No. 2, having received $203,100 from the company's employees; $100,600 of that has gone to her campaign committee.

Over the course of her political career, Clinton has received more than $933,000 in contributions from Goldman to her Senate campaigns, leadership PAC and supporting super PAC, Priorities USA Action.

Still, Goldman was only her 40th largest contributor overall in 2015, meaning the company counted for a smaller share of her overall haul than it did for some other candidates, like Cruz. And for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), for instance, Goldman was at No. 22, with $197,800.

Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich rounded out Goldman's top five, but with just $9,400 in gifts from the company's employees.

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